Trial date set for former GOP statehouse candidate in extortion case

A former Republican statehouse candidate faces an October trial date on charges related to statements she made about her opponent, State Rep. Rick Perales, R-Beavercreek, in their primary race this year.

Jocelyn Smith, 36, of Fairborn, faces a third-degree felony count of extortion and a second-degree misdemeanor count of coercion, according to court records of the secret indictment filed June 15.

She pleaded not guilty in July.

On Friday in Greene County Common Pleas Court, lawyers for the prosecution and defense met in chambers with a judge for about 30 minutes, setting an Oct. 29 trial date.

Perales, who is married, admits sending inappropriate sexually oriented text messages to Smith during a brief consensual relationship in early 2015 but denies that he choked, kissed or touched her in any intimate way. Perales said Smith sent him topless photos of herself but that he did not send any sexually oriented photos to her.

Smith denied sending the pictures and said that because she refused to have sex with him Perales would not sponsor a pancreatic cancer specialty license plate bill she supported. State records show Perales did co-sponsor and vote for a bill establishing the specialty plate.

The indictment stems from a complaint accusing Smith of extortion that Perales filed with Fairborn Police in April after Smith held a March 27 news conference in Fairborn. At the news conference, Smith said that if Perales did not resign from the state legislature and withdraw from the Republican primary, she would release texts and other documentation she said proved her allegations.

“Please don’t force me to release the rest of the text messages and other mountains of evidence,” Smith said at the news conference. “I think you know the honorable thing to do is to step down.”